Health Equity Strategic Plan | Department of Local Affairs
Visit the Department of Local Affairs website, call 719-359-4580, or email dola_web@state.co.us for more information or assistance with direct services.
Priority:
Economic Stability &
Neighborhood and Built Environment
Problem statement
The lack of affordable housing opportunities in Colorado continues to impact the health of Coloradans by disrupting emotional and psychological stability, interfering with economic stability, and overall health. Housing is becoming increasingly important to public health due to demographic and climate changes, according to the latest World Health Organization’s (WHO) housing and health guidelines. People experiencing homelessness have vast disparities in access to health care and are at a higher risk of untreated medical conditions and even mortality, with the mortality risk 3.5 times higher than that of the housed population. Compounding health inequities are the racial disparities that persist in homelessness nationally and here in Colorado, with people of color disproportionately impacted. As highlighted by the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative’s Annual State of Homelessness Report for the 7-county metro region, people who identify as Black/African American are 3.6 times overrepresented in our Denver Metro Region homelessness population compared to the general population. American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander populations are represented 4-4.5 times higher in the homelessness population than compared to the general population. Additionally, Colorado’s rural, remote, and rural resort areas also have unique dynamics, challenges, and inequities. DOLA’s priority is to reduce and prevent the existence of homelessness in Colorado.
Community engagement
DOLA’s staff serve on numerous community-based committees and task forces that provide input to our community engagement work and subsequent input to our programming and grants. Grants are a key engagement tool that are provided to local partners to support the work they are leading and envisioning for the prevention and resolution of homelessness in communities.
Within DOLA, the Division of Housing (DOH) and Office of Homeless Initiatives (OHI) partner with local communities through their relationships with Housing Authorities and local governments such as municipalities, special districts and counties. This engagement helps to create housing opportunities for Coloradans who face the greatest challenges to accessing affordable, safe, and secure homes. DOH provides technical assistance, including trainings as well as one on one technical assistance. DOLA also manages the Balance of State Continuum of Care, which coordinates Colorado's 54 rural counties regarding homelessness and includes a board of partners from those communities and has a “lived experience” committee. To ensure data informs the need and the efforts by the State and local communities, DOH will be adding capacity towards data through a partnership with Colorado’s Social Health Information Exchange (SHIE) to improve the State’s ability to analyze and report on homelessness data through the Homelessness Management Information System. This will include geographic and demographic trends and impact.
The Department also provides a number of grants to organizations and nonprofits that are led by minority groups that disproportionately serve underserved populations. DOH awarded over $86 million in Transformational Homelessness Response (THR) funding to projects across Colorado that will fundamentally shift the landscape of homelessness within the project’s community, region, and the State, by transforming systems, programs, and outcomes while being responsive to the one-time nature of the funding provided. To increase the grants to all populations and locations in Colorado, DOH is providing capacity building efforts for communities and local governments throughout the state regarding affordable housing development and homelessness response.
The Division of Local Government (DLG) administers several programs that provide grant funding to these kinds of organizations and nonprofits. Community Services Block Grant dollars are awarded to eligible entities (mostly counties, but also a few nonprofit organizations) to meet local needs around the causes and conditions of poverty. The Community Crime Prevention Initiative provides state grant funding annually to nonprofits to support programs that offer direct services aimed at reducing crime in certain lower-income communities around the state. Finally, the Nonprofit Infrastructure (NPI) Grant Program awarded one-time grants of federal state and local fiscal recovery funds to over 400 community-based nonprofit organizations across the state that provide services to communities that have historically been underrepresented and underserved.
Prevent and decrease the rate of homelessness for Coloradans
DOLA’S Division of Housing (DOH)’s vision is that everyone in Colorado has a safe, stable, and affordable place to live. To achieve this, DOH works with local communities to create homeless solutions, including:
- Prevention and Diversion: Preventing homelessness and helping divert people to solutions before entering a shelter or the streets.
- Coordinated Entry Systems: Coordinated connections to services and housing.
- Street Outreach: Outreaching to people living outside to ensure they are safe and connected to care and housing.
- Low-Barrier Shelters: Operating emergency shelters that all are able to access.
- Rapid Re-housing, Supportive Housing, Affordable Housing, and Home Ownership Supports: Providing rental assistance and housing vouchers.
In the last 10 years, Colorado has created 4,352 new supportive housing opportunities (3,102 project-based supportive housing units across 72 developments and 1,250 tenant-based supportive housing opportunities). The supportive housing developments created in the last decade span 18 counties and include programs in urban, suburban, and rural communities. This State of Supportive Housing in CO memo and Making Homelessness History In Colorado have more information on the work DOLA and our partners are doing in this space.
Due to historic and ongoing racism, not all racial and ethnic groups experience homelessness at the same rate. People of color, particularly Black and American Indian/Alaska Native populations, disproportionately experience housing instability, and DOLA’s work to increase affordable housing for people of color works to directly solve this problem.
Communities prioritized by this strategy:
- Low-income communities
- Communities of color
- LGBT+ communities
- People living with disabilities
- Housing cost-burdened communities
- Linguistically isolated communities
- Historically marginalized communities
- Cumulatively impacted communities
- Rural communities
- Tribal lands
- Mobile Home Communities
Areas of impact
This strategy will impact Coloradans statewide.
2024 milestones
- Work with communities in all 64 counties to ensure they have opted into creating more affordable housing and therefore have access to more state funding for housing and homelessness response, particularly Proposition 123. In 2024, DOLA funded 25 projects including supportive housing projects and $8.5m in homelessness grants. [Complete]
- Partner with local communities to create a robust continuum of proven solutions in line with best practices/proven approaches noted above, which is informed by Colorado State Homelessness Playbook, the state’s strategy for the implementation of Proposition 123 funding, community roadshow and survey input, and the Governor’s priorities [Complete]
2025 milestones
- Continue the strategic goals and impactful grants noted in SFY24 above.
2026 milestones
- Continue the strategic goals and impactful grants noted in SFY25 above.
By December 2024:
- Make strides to improve the contracting process in line with requirements from HB24-1308: Effective Implementation of Affordable Housing Programs to expedite more housing now, which includes housing for people least likely to access affordable housing and household with lower incomes, which often are marginalized populations, including people of color. [Complete]
By December 2025:
- Incentivize the creation of 2,500 housing opportunities that are prioritized for low-income households, including supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness that are least likely to self-resolve and need supportive services in addition to rental assistance.
By December 2026:
- Incentivize the creation of 4,000 housing opportunities (units and voucher lease-ups) by December 31, 2026 that are prioritized for low-income households, including supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness that are least likely to self-resolve and need supportive services in addition to rental assistance.
Support local governments’ ability to build more housing now
The Division of Local Government (DLG) will be the conduit to leverage federal, non-profit, and philanthropic resources for local governments, their business communities, non-profit partners, and residents to assist these partners to ensure affordable housing gets built now for the populations who need it most, including at-risk communities. Specifically:
- Made possible through 2024 land use and housing legislation, the new Transit-Oriented Communities (TOC) initiative will provide grant funding to enhance infrastructure around high-density housing projects adjacent to light rail or rapid-bus transit. This initiative will establish more affordable housing options for lower income residents and allow for more transit options, saving residents money and reducing air pollution.
- DLG is also developing a new accessory dwelling unit (ADU) program that will expedite the construction/conversion of ADUs to help address the shortage of affordable housing units in the Front Range. These ADUs are especially useful options for housing elderly family members or students, populations that are often economically disadvantaged and in danger of falling through the cracks.
DLG has set aside $40M in More Housing Now funds from the Energy and Mineral Impact Assistance Grant program to support local governments championing and contributing to affordable housing projects in their communities. This funding prioritizes housing solutions that will enhance opportunity for the most at-risk communities, providing more housing stability to these populations and bettering their economic and emotional health.
Communities prioritized by this strategy:
- Low-income communities
- Communities of color
- LGBT+ communities
- People living with disabilities
- Housing cost-burdened communities
- Linguistically isolated communities
- Historically marginalized communities
- Cumulatively impacted communities
- Rural communities
- Tribal lands
- Mobile Home Communities
- Aging Coloradans
Areas of impact
This strategy will impact Coloradans statewide.
2024 milestones
- DLG will release the final parking and transit maps. [Complete]
- Prioritize housing projects aligned with transit and community centers in the funding of affordable housing (DOH). [Complete]
- Expand technical assistance efforts to local governments to adopt land use and other strategies to increase opportunities for affordable and attainable housing development. [Complete]
- Enhance staff capacity to work collaboratively with local governments on the implementation of several new land use bills, including ones to increase the availability of accessory dwelling units (ADUs), increase the zoning density around light rail stations and bus rapid transit and remove parking minimums for multi-family housing projects. [Complete]
- Publish toolkits to support local government staff in expanding the infrastructure of their offices to achieve identified economic and housing initiatives and comply with the new land use bills mentioned above. [Complete]
2025 milestones
- Broaden technical assistance efforts through collaboration with other state agencies to support local governments in their efforts to implement land use and housing legislation.
- Creating several new grant programs to assist local government partners in implementing the new land use/housing legislation.
- Continue work on the More Housing Now and Land Use Initiative. The Division supports efforts by local governments to adopt land use and other strategies to increase the opportunity for affordable and attainable housing development.
2026 milestones
- Collaborate with other state agencies to increase technical assistance, support, and funding opportunities to local governments and businesses to expand housing opportunities in Colorado.
By December 2024
- Local governments’ staff will engage in at least 10 training and technical support opportunities with DOLA. This enhanced staffing capacity will allow for additional one-on-one meetings with subject jurisdictions to help them achieve implementation goals. [Complete]
By December 2025
- DLG will fund at least 10 projects using the $20M allocated to the More Housing Now fund and begin granting to local governments to help increase the construction/availability of ADUs and establish denser zoning in areas adjacent to light rail and bus rapid transit.
By December 2026
- DLG staff will engage in at least 10 funding opportunities with local governments specific to expanding housing opportunities in Colorado in the areas listed above.